Untold: an exhibition of documentary photography and multimedia
Current Featured Stories:
Portraits of East DRC by Ross Domoney. Captions by Diane Taylor.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is both blessed and cursed with huge mineral wealth, especially in the east. It has been dubbed the worst place on earth to be a woman - an estimated 48 women are raped there every hour by the various militias criss-crossing the region. East Congo is not only rich in minerals like gold and coltan but is also very fertile. The women in rural areas who farmed, then sold their surplus crops at market are suffering enormously. Thanks to the presence of the militias and the insatiable appetite for minerals they are no longer able to feed their families by farming. The militias occupy their fields and rape them if they try to sow or harvest crops. Instead growing numbers of them are being forced into slavery in the mines in the hope of earning a pittance to feed themselves and their children.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Agent Orange: The Legacy of Chemical Warfare - By Michael Carroll
Agent Orange was the code name for a chemical defoliant used by the United States military in Vietnam during the Vietnam War to deny the enemy cover. The chemicals used contained Dioxin - the most toxic chemical known to science and have caused serious birth defects in hundreds of thousands of people. Even today, over thirty years after the war, children are born with awful conditions including deformities, spina bifida, blindness, cancer, without limbs or severely handicapped. During 1962 to 1971 an estimated 19 million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed over Southern Vietnam alone. To date, the Vietnamese victims have received no compensation from the US government or corporations responsible for the manufacture of the chemicals.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Nepali Portraits By Dan Giannopoulos
Nepal is one of the most environmentally diverse countries on the planet. With an altitude variation of 60 metres above sea level in the Western Terrai to the highest point on earth, Mt Everest, in the high Himalaya at 8,848 metres. Nepal is also one of the world’s poorest nations, with over 80% of its population living in rural areas and surviving on an average annual wage of just over $200. These environmental and social extremes are reflected in the country’s people. The following images are a selection of semi-formal portraits of citizens from various parts of Nepali society.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________